10/27/25 Stretching Boundaries: NFL's Lululemon Deal and The Benefits of Using Local Law Firms

The Moneywise Radio Show and Podcast Monday, October 27th BE MONEYWISE. Moneywise Wealth Management I "The Moneywise Guys" podcast call: 661-847-1000 text in anytime: 661-396-1000 website: www. MoneywiseGuys.com facebook: Moneywise_Wealth_Management LinkedIn: Moneywise_Wealth_Management Guest: Matt Clark, Managing Partner with Chain, Cohn, Clark Attorneys website: https://www.chainlaw.com/ office: 661-616-9829

• 0:00Speaker 00

  From the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield, here is Money Wise. Call or text into the show 661-396-1000.

• 0:10Speaker 01

  I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Well, I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. Hey, hey. Said I need a dollar, dollar, dollar, that's what I need. And if I share with you my story, would you share your dollar with me?

• 0:30Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and Money Wise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  Here is Money Wise.

• 0:42Speaker 03

  And welcome to the Money Wise Show. We are live from the second floor of the historic Woolworths Building in downtown Bakersfield on ESPN Bakersfield, 1230 a.m., 101.1 FM, and always streaming at MoneyWiseGuys.com. You can call or text into the show 24 hours a day at 661-396-1000. Today, I'm your host, I'm Sharad Way. And...

• 1:05Speaker 00

  I'm Stephen Nicholas.

• 1:07Speaker 03

  Hey, Stephen. Happy Monday.

• 1:09Speaker 00

  Happy Monday.

• 1:11Speaker 03

  It was a crazy weekend. We had our grand opening for the Woolworths Building on Saturday. We had almost 14,000 people come down to 19th Street and participate in some way or another. We could not get everybody into the lunch counter because we just didn't have that much space at the lunch counter. But man, we had a line going down 19th Street, down Chester, all the way to 18th. There's two, almost a three-block-long line. Want to thank all of our people that supported that, but also all of you and of you who came out to support the Woolworths grand opening on Saturday. In fact, we got a couple

• 1:54Speaker 03

  messages from listeners. One says, "What a great time this weekend. Building looks great. The line was a bit too long for us, but we'll be back for sure." Another one says, "We had so much fun and came back later in the evening and had a beer with my wife. I wish you guys all the best and much..." Closer to me now. So thank you listeners for sending us in those comments. Keep them coming our way. Six, six, one, three, nine, six, one, thousand. Today is the first day that the Woolworth Luncheonette is open for real. And

• 2:25Speaker 00

  For real, for real. So

• 2:27Speaker 03

  Really busy down there. I don't know. Did you walk through?

• 2:29Speaker 00

  I was just gonna say, I was gonna go down there for lunch and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna let everybody kind of soak it in and enjoy their lunch and, uh, you know, I'm only like maybe 50 feet away, so I can always go down there and, but it is so cool. I mean, I was down there most of the day. Uh, Saturday and got to meet a lot of people, run into a lot of friends that came out. And everybody, it just that community vibe again. I don't know if it was the weather and the, the smell of some burgers and live local music, but it was just a great time. And like, uh, I'm not gonna tear up. I, I can easily tear up, but, uh, it was just great to have everybody in so much positive vibes. It was just a good time.

• 3:10Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, it was, it was super cool. It, it was exciting to like, we're not fully open at the building and we still have our elevator that needs to be installed. So a lot of our money wise clients, for example, or we're, you know, we have meeting spaces down on the ground floor to accommodate those who can't take the steps and come up here on the second floor. Within a month or so, we should have that completed, our elevator. And then we're really excited because we have a venue space down in the basement. We'll be able to move this show, Stephen, which right now we're doing from our offices. We're kind of doing over our computers in the offices, but which is fine. It's working, but we're looking forward to actually being in the same room together.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  My truck will like it. My, my truck will like it. He's, he's tired of driving back and forth, so he'll enjoy it.

• 4:00Speaker 03

  Yeah, for sure. Um, but so, yeah, things are, things are really chugging along. Looking forward to a guest. We have a guest coming up later in the show. Really excited to have Matt Clark on. He's an attorney, actually just down the street from us. Cone, Styles and Clark is a local law firm, long time established Bakersfield law.

• 4:20Speaker 03

  Been here for many, many years and now they're just a couple of blocks down the street from us. Matt's a great guy, a friend of the show and Matt's gonna come on, we're gonna talk, talk some legal discussion with Matt. Before we do that though, NFL's in the news. I mean, obviously they're always in the news. But did you see the news with Lululemon, Steven, about Lululemon coming out with NFL? All 32 teams in the NFL are gonna have some sort of Lululemon piece?

• 4:47Speaker 00

  No, what, first of all, what is Lululemon?

• 4:50Speaker 03

  Do you know what Lululemon is?

• 4:52Speaker 00

  I do not.

• 4:53Speaker 03

  Oh my gosh.

• 4:54Speaker 00

  Break it down, I have no idea. I thought you were gonna get into the gambling thing that's been going on in the sports world. Cause that one is kinda shadowed what's really going on in the NBA. But there was two big gambling busts last week that kinda shook the world.

• 5:10Speaker 03

  I heard about this. Was it Chauncey, Chauncey Billups?

• 5:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, that was, it was two separate cases. One was a player that wasn't too surprising. He was actually, the FBI has been investigating it for a couple of years. And these prop bets are getting a little out of control where he was, you know, telling family and friends, hey, you know, take the lower if I'm gonna make 15 points. And they'd go out there and score 14 and then, oh, I got an injury and pull himself out of the game. And it got kinda weird where he was making almost, I believe it was 40 something bets in a 45 minute period of time. So the FBI is like, oh, that's, we're gonna circle that and investigate it.

• 5:54Speaker 00

  But the Chauncey Billups one is a bit crazier because he was actually got into with the, some poker games with the mob. And while the FBI was investigating it, found out there was some ways that they were counting cards. And they were using some, some tables that they can actually know which person had which cards. And it, it's gonna get a bit crazier after each day where we're getting a list of players and celebrities that were taking part in these illegal gambling games.

• 6:25Speaker 03

  Are all in the same, like kinda same circle? So it's not just these? These people we're talking about, there's more that are coming out.

• 6:33Speaker 00

  Oh, they're dropping names here and there. It's it's a whole thing. So I mean, and they waited.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Active players?

• 6:38Speaker 00

  Active players, active coaches, Hall of Fame players, celebrities. I mean, it's getting crazy.

• 6:44Speaker 03

  Man, and boy, I thought Pete Rose had it bad.

• 6:48Speaker 00

  Right? And I think sooner or later, either it's the NBA or all sports is gonna have to do something with these gambling, especially with like the DraftKings, the the prop bets. I think it's just maybe crossing the line where they can't really investigate every athlete and keep an eye on. So I think sooner or later, there's they're gonna have to do something. I know that that's a big money, you know, money market where they're making a ton of money for the league. But I think it's it's getting a little too crazy.

• 7:18Speaker 03

  Explain again, so the prop bets are basically you're betting on anything but the outcome of the game?

• 7:24Speaker 00

  Yeah, so like California, we can't legally bet on games. But for some reason, we can do prop bets. So for example, there's a baseball game tonight. So you can say, you can take the bet of if Otani is gonna hit a homerun. So you can take the over or under. So you either gonna put $20 down to win $50. If he hits the homerun, then you win. If you if he doesn't, then you lose. But they have so many different prop bets, you know, you can say, you know, how many left-handed pitchers are gonna pitch tonight? You know, they get into the point where in the Super Bowl, they were betting on how long you can take the over and under of five minutes on the Star Spangled Banner.

• 8:03Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 8:04Speaker 00

  I mean, it's just getting a bit too crazy. But now that now the FBI is involved, and I think they're gonna have to crack down.

• 8:13Speaker 03

  Yeah, now it sounds like if you can, like, prop bets would be a lot easier for a player or a coach to get involved with it, to like rig it, right?

• 8:21Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 8:21Speaker 03

  It's not just whether or not you win the game or score a certain amount. It's, you know, whether a certain player plays even.

• 8:29Speaker 00

  Yeah, and it doesn't have to be the star. You can just pick a player and be like, hey, I think he's gonna score. You know, the line could be five points if it's a bench player. Say, no, I think he's gonna, you know, make two three pointers. He's gonna take six. So I'll take the over, and they could bet on anything.

• 8:44Speaker 03

  Oh my gosh. Oh, that's so interesting. Well, Lululemon, just so you know, it's a huge clothing company. They started their, they started with focusing on the yoga community. So it's a lot of like yoga pants and yoga clothes. And then they've expanded out. And I think last year, they started working more into the athletic wear with the NHL, for example. But this, just this morning, shares of Lululemon rose more than 3% in trading off of the news that Lululemon is partnering with the NFL to launch an apparel, an apparel collection. It's going to have logos

• 9:27Speaker 03

  from all 32 NFL teams. And I just thought it was interesting that, you know, we have essentially like a, started out as just a yoga clothing company, a big one, you know, it's not, it's not just this tiny company, but that, you know, just that alone, the influence that NFL has on a, on a clothing retailer. Lululemon's annual revenue over the last 12 months, close to $11 billion. They have a market capitalization. So the value of the company is around $22 billion. So it's, it's a, you know, very large company. Wow. But the NFL is, they make a lot of money off of apparel. And it's not totally straightforward.

• 10:10Speaker 03

  I actually had to do a little bit of like investigating. But the total NFL revenue that is estimated that comes off of, just off of clothes or apparel is three or four billion dollars. That's four, four billion dollars, we'll call it, a year in merchandise sales, which like, you know, that, like, that alone would be a massive company that was selling $4 billion worth of product every year. That, you know, I always have to go back and remind myself, well, how much does the NFL actually generate in 2024 for the 2024 season? The NFL generated a total of $23 billion in revenue. $23 billion. That's just revenue.

• 10:54Speaker 03

  The league classifies their revenue in basically two different ways. They have the national, which is the shared revenues, and then they have their local, which is team specific. The national revenues comes from the TV, media rights, licensing, like merchandise and trademarks and, and league-wide sponsorships. Local is different. That's just ticket sales, concessions, parking, local sponsorships, you've got your team retail operations and so on. So, I mean, NFL is just, and it just continues to grow, you know, every single year.

• 11:25Speaker 00

  Now they're, now they're wanting to go international. So it's, they're just opening up a whole nother, you know, another comma on those zeros, I would say.

• 11:35Speaker 03

  Yeah. And now you can get your Miami Dolphins yoga pants, Stephen.

• 11:39Speaker 00

  I'll get on the waiting list right now.

• 11:41Speaker 03

  Perfect. We're gonna take a quick break. When we come back, we're gonna be joined by our guest, Matt Clark. He is the managing partner at Chain Cone Clark Law Firm, right here in town. We're gonna talk all things legal with Matt right when we come back. We're Money Wise, don't go anywhere.

• 11:56Speaker 00

  Need to get your financial fix on the go? If so, subscribe to the Money Wise Podcast and catch up on all past shows.

• 12:02Speaker 03

  Welcome back to the Money Wise Show. I'm Sherrod Wade, your host, here with Stephen Nicholas. We're joined right now by our guest, Matt Clark. He is the managing partner at Chain Cone Clark Law Firm, a local law firm right here in Bakersfield, in fact, right down the street from the Woolworths, historic Woolworths Building. Matt, welcome back to the show.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  Thank you, Sherrod. Nice to be back. Hey, congratulations on the building.

• 12:32Speaker 03

  Oh, thank you. Thank you. I know, I mean, we've known you for years, so we've known you before we, we actually moved here downtown, but yeah, it's been a long four-year process. We're super excited, super excited to be here and especially to be downtown. Great food. There's great food around here.

• 12:50Speaker 01

  Well, there's a lot, there's, you know, I think people like to.

• 12:53Speaker 04

  Pick on poor downtown Bakersfield sometimes, but downtown's got a lot going for it, Ned. And for those of us trying to find something for lunch downtown, I really am happy to have the Woolworths lunch counter back.

• 13:07Speaker 03

  Well, good. Give us some time. Right now, the line is long and the wait is long. We're working on it, but.

• 13:14Speaker 04

  It's gonna take a little time.

• 13:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, for sure, for sure.

• 13:17Speaker 04

  But congratulations. I mean, what you guys did and the investment you folks made in downtown is really something to be commended. It's not what I'm here to talk about, but.

• 13:27Speaker 03

  No, I appreciate it.

• 13:29Speaker 04

  I mean, it's a, you guys took a risk and it's a, it's a big deal to take on a project like that.

• 13:35Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 13:36Speaker 04

  At our law firm, we took on a project of a much smaller scale when we remodeled the, what was originally a bank building built in the 1800s and then it became, it was a bank through the 1950s, 60s and 70s, and then it was a goodwill for many, many years.

• 13:51Speaker 03

  Ah, yeah.

• 13:52Speaker 04

  And I mean, it was a project, so I can't even imagine what your project entailed.

• 13:58Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, you got some taste of it for sure. And, you know, even just being downtown, it's the, it's the older part of the city. And so a lot of the infrastructure is, is dated and, you know, there's all kinds of, there's all kinds of issues. But also what comes with downtown is just this great, I don't know, it's just a great vibe. You get, you get a lot of people, it's like, our old offices, I loved over on Stockdale Highway, it was great. There was a lot of conveniences, but you didn't, you didn't like see the same people every day. Here, it's like, there's really a community downtown. You see the same people walking in the streets. You got the same restaurants. I don't know. I love it.

• 14:37Speaker 04

  I love it. I don't want to, I don't want to pick on Southwest Bakersfield. I live in Southwest Bakersfield. But, you know, you go to Southwest Bakersfield, although there are a lot of locally owned establishments for restaurants and things like that. A lot of it's just sort of chain this, chain. And downtown, there really is no chains. I mean, it's all locally owned. And, and so that's something I really appreciate about working downtown. I've worked downtown for 25 years now and I, I suspect in my career, I'll never go anywhere else.

• 15:06Speaker 03

  You know, one thing I really like about your commercials. So Chaincone Clark has, I think, very quality local commercials that are aired. And one thing that you talk a lot about, that I've seen a common theme in your commercials, is you're local. And like, a restaurant, I can see like, people wanting to support a restaurant because it's local. But there are some unique challenges when you're in the need for an attorney. There's a huge difference, in my opinion, working with an attorney that's local versus not. And I'm not even talking about like, just cost.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  Obviously, you know, cost is a thing, but like, having an attorney that actually lives here, you know, what, like, maybe you can help explain some of the unknown benefits that come with working with a local attorney?

• 16:04Speaker 04

  Well, first and foremost, I mean, I'll go through a list here, but let me talk about the biggie. When you go and you hire an out-of-town lawyer, the likelihood of you ever meeting that lawyer is essentially zero. Okay? You know, these are, these are kind of billboard, phone book, you know, TV ad lawyers. And, you know, I say that knowing I've got some billboards and some TV ads out there, but we are local. We've been in Bakersfield for 91 years. We're not going anywhere. I'm from Bakersfield. I'm really, outside of going away to school, I've never lived anywhere else. And so this is my home. And so my clients, from day one, meet me. They get my cellphone number, they get to meet me, they get to talk to me.

• 16:47Speaker 04

  And there's a relationship, just like in your business, where, you know, relationships are really important. I think if I'm going to represent somebody, especially someone who's been tragically injured, they need to know me and trust me and trust that I'm going to do everything I can as an advocate on their behalf to put their life back together. And so having access to the lawyer is something that I think goes...

• 17:13Speaker 04

  People just don't understand how important that is. And if you go and you you hire one of these folks and and I'll I'll tell you, Sherrod, a lot of these people, and in fact, some of them are even downtown. They'll claim they've got offices here in Bakersfield, but you go and you walk up and you try to knock on the door. There's no one there. It's like a post office box and there's nothing else to it. Having an actual local lawyer, local law firm, you know, local people involved that you can talk to and that you can go to in your time of need is, I I think, probably the biggest difference.

• 17:46Speaker 03

  Yeah, you you get some, you you you never know if you're gonna run into a client at the grocery store, right? And you're you're gonna run into, you know, somebody.

• 17:55Speaker 04

  Can I comment on that real quick? Because let me tell you what that does. Is that makes it like so, for example, I I couldn't tell you how often, just today, I went to lunch. I went to a a little Mexican restaurant we love over by the the kind of the big, well, Bakersfield Art Museum there off of 21st Street. And there was some people sitting in there and immediately, you know, they said hello and this. And they were just some old clients of mine. I'd represented them a decade plus ago. And so I run into my past clients all the time. So here's what that means. I better treat you well and I better treat you fairly, okay? Because you're gonna see me out and about. I'm gonna run into you. Uh, and I want to make sure that I can hold my head up high when I do so.

• 18:36Speaker 04

  If you've got somebody that's from, you know, the Bay Area or LA, they're never gonna know you. They're never gonna meet you. They are, you, there is zero holding them accountable. And um, and so that's another real plus to to having somebody local. And again, I think this applies to your business as well, right? I mean, you you guys run into your clients around town all the time, I would think. And you want to be able to hold up your head and and know you're doing the best work you can for those people.

• 19:04Speaker 03

  Yeah, Bakersfield has its challenge of being an incredibly large city in the county of nearly a million people. And so you're gonna get, you know, we have a lot of people that that have needs, whether it's legal needs or financial needs. But at the same time, it it does, you carry a reputation pretty quickly. Whether it's good or bad in this town, because we have a shortage of all types of professionals, including attorneys and financial professionals. And so, you know, again, we're, obviously you and I are local business owners. We're biased towards local, but it really does help to have, work with somebody who stands behind their reputation,

• 19:46Speaker 03

  and you know where they're standing behind their reputation. And so, you know, when you're dealing with an injury, for example, it is prime for people to get taken advantage of. When people are under stress or they're under any sort of duress, we see it in our world too, when there's an inheritance, or there's a lottery win, whatever it is, people all of a sudden, kind of, there can be a big shift in their life. And so, you've got to be careful, kind of, who you're choosing to work with. And with personal injury, how is it that these, I guess there's no law against a law, an LA law firm,

• 20:31Speaker 03

  making it seem like they're here even though they're not here?

• 20:34Speaker 04

  Yeah, there's no, there's no strict prohibition about that. I mean, they buy a post office box here and they claim they're here in Bakersfield. I mean, it's funny, you can get them on the phone and say, okay, well, that's wonderful. I'd like to meet with an attorney in Bakersfield. And they're like, whoa, hold on a second. You know, we'll bring a limousine to your house to pick you up and bring you down to us in Sherman Oaks. And what the client doesn't understand is you're paying for that, right? I mean, you paid for that limo ride, you, you know, that is coming out of whatever gross receipts may be generated as a result of your case. And so, it,

• 21:13Speaker 04

  I mean, look, it's really ripe for fraud. There are,

• 21:18Speaker 04

  The plaintiff's bar, which is what I'm a part of, right? If you're, if you're a personal injury lawyer, you consider yourself a member of the plaintiff's bar. And there has been some practices in the plaintiff's bar in the last three to five years that are really just now coming to light. And there are some really unscrupulous lawyers out there that are taking advantage of their clients. They're taking advantage of the system in general. You know, the client's not being treated fairly, the system's being abused. And there's lawsuits that have popped up, there's, there's criminal cases coming, I can promise you.

• 21:54Speaker 03

  Well, we'll talk about the Uber lawsuit. I, I saw some information about this, the, what's going on with Uber and.

• 22:01Speaker 04

  Yeah, so Uber sued several Los Angeles attorneys. The allegation of that lawsuit is that they basically were making up claims, right? That they had clients that may have had little to no injury while riding in an Uber. And then what they did is they sent those clients to what are alleged to be fraudulent medical professionals, doctors, chiropractors, radiology. All of these services, of course, being provided on a loan basis, meaning that the client repays it out of the proceeds of their case at an extravagant cost, mind you, okay? And, and then there, they would submit these claims to Uber.

• 22:43Speaker 04

  And so Uber has sued, I think it's two, three, maybe even four law firms out of LA. Ones you've heard of, you know, the types of law firms that sponsor things like Laker games and stuff like that. And they're taking them to the mat and suing them for, my understanding is hundreds of millions of dollars because they, they handled these fraudulent cases. And, you know, that type of unethical practice is giving folks like me a bad name. I mean, again, look, my firm, we've been around 91 years. We wouldn't have made it that long if we didn't hold ourselves to extremely high ethical standards.

• 23:25Speaker 04

  But that is not what we're seeing out of some of our, some of the firms down in LA.

• 23:32Speaker 03

  We have a guest message right here. It says, "My family has used an attorney from out of town and it was terrible. They promised us the world and the kid they sent for our case didn't even know our names, wasted our time and money. Said, 'I've never used your guest, but if I needed one, I would stay local.'" That's kind of what you're talking about. You'd never meet the actual attorney whose face is on the billboard.

• 23:57Speaker 04

  They know nothing about your case.

• 23:58Speaker 03

  And they're just...

• 23:59Speaker 04

  Let me say this, Chad, I know we've got to take a break, but what happens then is these lawyers that don't know you, you've never met them, your case ends up becoming a problem to them because they can't just make a quick buck and settle it. So then they end up calling somebody like me to try to take the case over at the last second and go try the case. I mean, we'll do that on occasion. Sometimes there's so much damage that's already been done. We can't repair what the other lawyer had already messed up. And so, you know, it's the poor client that ends up suffering in the end. And it's sad because they already suffered an injury in the first place and now they've got a second injury thanks to their bad lawyer.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  Well, and like this case you're talking about down in LA with Uber and that, that affects us here. That affects our insurance rates. It affects our Uber, it affects our costs, it affects everything, you know?

• 24:50Speaker 04

  Hundred percent.

• 24:51Speaker 03

  It hurts.

• 24:52Speaker 04

  That's an absolute issue. True.

• 24:53Speaker 03

  Will we take a break? Maybe you could explain more. How personal, how, if you have a personal injury and it's not a legitimate personal injury that has a case, maybe you can explain to us what the, like, how that impacts us. And then when somebody knows that they actually, when it is appropriate to contact an attorney and when it is appropriate to just sort of go, "Ah, you know, whatever. I don't want to sue. I'm going to move on." I know there's some gray area there. Maybe you can break that down. We come back from the break. We're joined by our guest, attorney Matt Clark from Chaincone Clark Law Firm. We'll be right back.

• 25:31Speaker 00

  If you're a business owner who provides a retirement plan for your employees, contact Money Wise Wealth Management to see if you're maximizing your options and minimizing your liabilities. Money Wise 401K plans are customized to you and your company's needs. 661-847-1000. That's 661-847-1000.

• 25:55Speaker 03

  Thanks for tuning in. We're Money Wise. Appreciate you listening to the show today. We're joined by our guest, Matt Clark. He's an attorney specializing in personal injury. We're talking about that right now with Matt. So Matt, give us some of the biggest misconceptions that people have with personal injury law and lawsuits.

• 26:18Speaker 04

  Well, you know, before the break, we were talking about what amounts to fraudulent claims, right? And this Uber lawsuit against some of these LA-based lawyers. Look, what I would tell your listeners is you being the person involved in some event that caused an injury, okay, whether it be an auto accident, that's what we all immediately think of, okay? But in my practice, I handle everything from auto accident cases, trucking accident cases, to huge industrial accident cases, explosion cases, products liability cases. If you've been injured, you know if your case is legitimate or if it's fraudulent, right? If you're in it because you just think you're going to make a quick buck, then it's

• 27:03Speaker 04

  probably a not legitimate claim. And then the other telltale sign is, are you getting legitimate medical treatment? Are you going to real doctors and seeing real practitioners? Or are you, you know, seeing people who are known? And trust me, there are some medical professionals out there that are known for just sort of making this stuff up. And so, you know, to your average listener that has no desire to commit fraud, if you've been in some sort of an accident, or you've had some sort of injury that was not your fault, and you're legitimately hurt, you probably have a legitimate claim.

• 27:45Speaker 04

  Uh, and if, on the other hand, uh, you know, you, uh, stubbed your toe on the sidewalk and, um, uh, you're trying to claim a brain injury out of it. You know that you're committing a fraud. And so, you know, most, most people know, um, what's

• 28:05Speaker 03

  How is that, just from a, from a law firm's perspective? I mean, I imagine you, you, you must have somebody just full time on the payroll that's just listening to stories all day. People calling in.

• 28:15Speaker 04

  Absolutely.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  And so

• 28:16Speaker 04

  And let me say this, let me say this about Bakersfield. The vast, vast majority of those calls are legitimate. Now, we don't take them all. I, I don't have the manpower to take every single case. But we hear you out and will give you advice as to, you know, some people don't even need my services, right? It might be that you're better off, um, financially speaking, to just handle it yourself. And I, I probably give that speech to someone, somewhere between three to five times a week, right?

• 28:45Speaker 03

  But, but, so explain that then, like, when, when would, when does somebody know to just handle it themselves?

• 28:50Speaker 04

  Yeah, look, if you know that you've got, uh, uh, maybe, uh, a couple thousand dollars in medical expense. Um, you know, maybe, maybe you had a, a visit to your doctor and your doctor prescribed you some pain medication. And that's kind of the end of it. And then you get better, right? Well, at that point, you, you really don't need me. You, you, you can handle it on your own. Reach out to the insurance companies involved in the case and negotiate a settlement. If you're confused on how to do that, what I would tell you to do is call my office. I am happy. You will literally get to talk to me and I will walk you through the process and tell you how you can do it yourself. What, what I'm seeing some people doing now, Sherrod, and I would really recommend people don't do it,

• 29:33Speaker 04

  is don't go to ChatGPT or one of these AI platforms. Number one, if you're giving them personal information about your injuries and your medical treatment, things like that, understand that it is in no way privacy protected.

• 29:44Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 29:46Speaker 04

  Your data is now out there for whomever wants it. Um, and so don't, don't do that. Secondly, I mean, we've done a lot of tests within our office of these various, and I, uh, uh, AIs. Everything from, you know, everybody knows ChatGPT, but there's others, there's Claude AI, there's

• 30:05Speaker 04

  Um, the, the

• 30:06Speaker 03

  Brock.

• 30:07Speaker 04

  Yes, exactly.

• 30:08Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:09Speaker 04

  The responses that they give you are just total garbage. Like, like as far as like, hey, here's what happened to me in an accident. What should I ask the insurance company for? Total garbage response. Like, do not do that. You're better off calling somebody like me. Let me give you a little free advice over the phone if I can't help you.

• 30:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, that, that's, that's good. I, I, I've seen that a little bit. I see that in our industry too, because I, I use AI for, for, for work, some work stuff. And every once in a while, it's like, this is not even close. This is why, this is why practicing law is a practice. There's, there is some art involved in, in law. And AI just hasn't gotten that far yet. Like, it's great. It does a lot of things really good, but it's not good with humor. It's not good with art, you know?

• 30:57Speaker 04

  Uh, it's good at making silly videos is about the best so far.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  Right.

• 31:02Speaker 04

  Uh, you know, we don't rely on it in our practice in any way. I mean, I think the, the legal field in general, I think there was a lot of excitement around it early on. And then people started to see the reality of what was coming out. It was like, it was like, maybe you were putting quality in and still getting garbage out. You know, the, the kind of a play on the old saying. And so the, most of the legal community is kind of steered away from it at this point.

• 31:26Speaker 03

  We have another listener question kind of geared towards this. It says, I love chain cone Clark commercials. I see them on the news. Is there a certain amount of money involved in the case that they will take? So basically, Matt, like, is it? You know, if it's just a few thousand dollars and people don't probably wouldn't want to get an attorney? Or is there a certain limit?

• 31:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, there's no, there's no hard and fast rule to this. Okay, but what I would tell you is if your case is worth less than $10,000, I, I honestly don't know that I do you any good. Okay. Because just do the math. If my fee is a third, you know, 33.3%. So I'm taking, you know, 3,300 of your 10,000. If you could have got 6,700 on your own, you didn't need me in the first place.

• 32:08Speaker 03

  Right.

• 32:08Speaker 04

  And so, you know, that's really the dividing line. And, and honestly, even up to say 15. Thousand, I don't think I I really earn my keep. And so we typically turn those cases away. We give folks free advice. Um, you know, I hope that uh, I I I hope that that answers the question. But it

• 32:26Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:27Speaker 04

  There there can be nuances to it. And so sometimes we can help people in those circumstances. Um, one of the ways that we help is by negotiating down medical bills on people's behalf. So that they can net more of their settlement money versus it going to a hospital or a doctor.

• 32:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, oh, that that could be That could be a big benefit. Another message here says, so don't call the five, five, five, five, five, five, five guy.

• 32:53Speaker 04

  Uh, yeah, I'd recommend it gets that. Look, I mean, a- again, i- if if the lawyer is unwilling to see you face to face day one, that's a huge red flag. And it usually means you're never gonna see that lawyer ever. If if what you're told is that they're gonna send an investigator out to meet with you again, huge red flag. Um, you know, I I I won't take a case unless I meet the client, period.

• 33:20Speaker 03

  Yeah. Um, yeah, yeah.

• 33:23Speaker 04

  Cause you know, my cases are typically a little more complicated. They go on for quite a while. And uh, that client's gotta like me and I gotta like the client.

• 33:32Speaker 03

  Yeah, and you and and you've got to get a feel for really what's going on.

• 33:35Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 33:36Speaker 03

  And that that takes actually

• 33:37Speaker 04

  I don't want Uber suing me for fraud.

• 33:40Speaker 03

  That's right. What what what would you say some of the more common mistakes are that people make right after an accident?

• 33:47Speaker 04

  Um, well, first of all, an insurance co- you know, insurance companies lack scruples too. So let's just be clear about this. So one of the practices I see is you'll be involved in an accident, you'll be twenty four hours after that wreck. And they'll call you up and they'll say, hey, we'll, you know, throw you X amount of money, twenty five hundred dollars, something like that to go away. I highly recommend you don't ever accept that under those circumstances because twenty four hours post accident, you can legally sign a settlement release. And um, and it's binding, okay, meaning you can't go back and ask for any more money after that. Um, and you may not know the full extent of your injuries only twenty four hours after an accident. So that's a big mistake that I see people making.

• 34:32Speaker 04

  Um, you know, nowadays, there are cameras everywhere. And so when it comes to not just auto accident cases, but Really any case for that matter, um, having a lawyer's office involved early that can go out and obtain video, be it, be it either video from a, a, a neighboring Ring camera to, um, we've gotten everything from, I had a case one time shared where it was a red light case and there was a huge dispute over who would run the red light and we were actually able to get camera, uh, or video from an ATM machine that was at a bank nearby. And you couldn't really make out the lights, but you could see how

• 35:16Speaker 04

  the bottom light would be illuminated, then it would go to the top light. And of course, we all know, looking at traffic signals, the order of the light. So we were able to tell from that, uh, who had the red light, who had the green light. And so being able to get that quickly is really important. Um, security camera video, most places record over within a week. And so if you don't act quickly, you're not going to get it. So that'd be another mistake I see a lot.

• 35:43Speaker 03

  Do, do you recommend, so right now, a lot of cars now are coming with cameras.

• 35:48Speaker 04

  Yep.

• 35:49Speaker 03

  They've just got built in with cameras. But do you, do you recommend people put cameras in themselves?

• 35:56Speaker 04

  I think it's a great idea. Now, I had saying that, Sherrod, in all honesty, I haven't done it in all my vehicles.

• 36:04Speaker 03

  You'd have done it?

• 36:05Speaker 04

  I, I have done it in a few, but not in all.

• 36:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 36:08Speaker 04

  It, it, it requires a bit of discipline, like you have to, they've gotten much simpler, these dash cameras.

• 36:14Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:15Speaker 04

  Basically they're record all the time and in fact, some, there's new ones out there that if you are unfortunately in a crash, the camera will even give you data, right? So the camera's tracking GPS speed. It's not always perfect, but it's close. And the, the newest ones will even track what we call delta V or change in velocity. So there's a, uh, some sort of a, a device, an accelerometer essentially within the camera. And it will tell, and it records in the video stream, how much force was exerted upon a vehicle in the accident. That's a huge help to lawyers like me.

• 36:52Speaker 03

  Oh, I imagine. And there must be, I don't know if it's Russia or Eastern Europe, but there, there must be something with the insurance laws or liabilities that there's so many crazy dashboard camera videos out on, on the internet.

• 37:09Speaker 04

  Yeah, I think you see a lot of fraud in those sort of Eastern Bloc countries.

• 37:13Speaker 03

  Right.

• 37:13Speaker 04

  You know, the motorcycle that backs up into you kind of.

• 37:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 37:17Speaker 04

  And so a lot of people have invested in those dash cameras. I think dash cameras are a great idea. Um, and they've gotten to the point where they're relatively cheap. I mean, you can get a pretty nice dash camera now for eighty bucks.

• 37:28Speaker 03

  Right.

• 37:29Speaker 04

  So it's a little, it's a little extra security. Um.

• 37:33Speaker 03

  It, it, have you seen certain, I guess, trends happen on a local basis? Like where maybe, I don't know if they're just predators, but they're basically people out there.

• 37:46Speaker 03

  Making up accidents or, or, you know.

• 37:48Speaker 04

  No, no, you know, again, I practiced next year will be my twenty fifth year of practice here in Bakersfield. And I haven't seen that. I've never seen it in a widespread fashion here. Uh, have there been cases that have come across my desk in twenty five years where I question the legitimacy of the case? Sure. I mean, that happens. But it's really rare. Um, uh, you know, maybe if you were down in Los Angeles or again up in the Bay Area, that might be more prevalent. But here I don't see it often if at all. I mean, if I see that once a year, it's pretty astounding.

• 38:20Speaker 03

  Right. Yeah. Well, that's good.

• 38:22Speaker 04

  I wouldn't call that a trend here at all. Now I will tell you a terrible trend here. And in fact, this year alone, we're having one of the worst years, frankly, since my office has been tracking the data. Is DUI related crashes and fatalities in particular.

• 38:37Speaker 03

  Oh, that's terrible.

• 38:40Speaker 04

  This is one of the worst years on record.

• 38:42Speaker 03

  Oh, that's too bad. Um, yeah, I wonder.

• 38:45Speaker 04

  That statistic.

• 38:47Speaker 03

  Yeah, I wonder what, I wonder what's going on there. What's, why that's trending? Cause I, I, na- nationwide, I think drinking is down, but I guess drinking and driving is a different thing.

• 38:57Speaker 04

  Yeah, well, I know for people in the, in the alcohol sales business, um, that yes, drinking is down. I mean, you hear these stories from, you know, if you have friends that own wineries or breweries or whatever it may be. I think it's dire straits, but the, um, the number of alcohol related fatalities, I think we're at. It's either twenty four or twenty five, um, alcohol related fatalities on our roads just in Bakersfield so far this year. And that number. Is truly record breaking. I mean, it's a, it's a terrible statistic and I don't have an answer as to why that is. It's going to take somebody smarter than me to figure

• 39:35Speaker 04

  that out. But it's, you know, talking about sort of trends in our community, it's a devastating and terrible trend and I would advise, you know, all your listeners to be vigilant, just be careful.

• 39:48Speaker 03

  Yeah. Good stuff. Good stuff. Well, Matt, thank you so much for taking the time, coming on the show, talking about some of this stuff. Really appreciate you and, and appreciate you breaking down some of these things. It's Matt Clark from Partner and Managing, Partner at Chain Cone Clark. Thanks so much, Matt.

• 40:06Speaker 04

  Thank you very much, Sherrod. And again, congratulations on the new digs. I look forward to coming by and checking it out.

• 40:11Speaker 03

  Yeah, please do. Please do. Take care.

• 40:13Speaker 04

  Have a good one.

• 40:14Speaker 03

  Thank you. We're gonna take our final break of the day. We'll be right back.

• 40:17Speaker 00

  Have you been putting off your finances? Seize the day. Call the Money Wise office at 661-847-1000 or email [email protected] for more information.

• 40:39Speaker 03

  Welcome back to Money Wise. I'm Sherrod Waite. Here with Stephen Nicholas. We may have already talked about this in previous shows, but the cost of living adjustment for social security was announced. And congratulations for those who are on social security are getting a 2.8% increase for the average person. That's about $50 a month. So that will pay for your Hulu subscription or whatever.

• 41:06Speaker 00

  Part of it.

• 41:07Speaker 03

  Part of your, part of your Hulu subscription.

• 41:12Speaker 00

  I did, I did get a listener call in during the break and was asking about EBT cards. And I told him if we didn't get it to it today, that we can get into it tomorrow.

• 41:22Speaker 03

  Oh, what is it? I didn't see the question.

• 41:24Speaker 00

  He believes that EBT cards are getting shut down as of Saturday, November 1st. And I said, I'm not aware of that, but I will definitely let you guys know. I know we've only got a couple of minutes left in the show. So I told him to tune in tomorrow if we didn't get to it. But yeah.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, I have seen some of these things in the news because of the federal shutdown, which now we're at 28 or 29 days into the government shutdown. And so I have seen some things in the news about certain programs like SNAP, which is a Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. That's what that's what the EBT cards are, that that there may be some issues there. However, I would tread lightly, you know, be careful about, you know, just trusting any sort of news headline. Because, you know, these, there's a lot of sensationalism going on and and you want

• 42:26Speaker 03

  to make sure that, you know, you're you're you're paying attention. There, this government shutdown is is pretty crazy and we're now only a few days in into reaching a record timeframe of having the government shut down. So, you know, we may start to tread be in uncharted waters in terms of what impact this is going to have on certain programs. For social security, fortunately, it's not a program that that is anticipated to be affected by the government shutdown, including the increases that the that the social security does every single year.

• 43:08Speaker 03

  They do a cost of living adjustment and essentially what they look at is the Consumer Price Index. And so it's not like just, you know, a couple of guys in a in a dark office somewhere just making up some number, how much should we increase? And no, actually, they're they're actually looking at economic data to see what the real inflation is for retirees. And that's what they're using to determine what this increase is going to be. So that's what that $50 a month is for on average again, because the average. A payment that people, that retirees are receiving from social security this year is

• 43:46Speaker 03

  $2,015. So next year, the average will be $2,072. And that is, again, to help retirees essentially deal with the inflation, impacts of inflation. If you're wondering, well, how is 2.8%? How does that compare? Well, that's about average. That's about average of what the index has been increasing over the last 10 years. It's right around 2.8%. Over the last 20 years, goes a little lower. The average increase has been 2.6%. If you look at going

• 44:27Speaker 03

  back to 1975, so go back 50 years, the average is actually 3.8%. So that means on average over the last 50 years, if you're looking at the consumer price index, the index that social security follows, that means we've seen an average of about 3.8%. And that, you know, we've been now historically in a much lower period of time, even though it doesn't feel like it, especially, you know, everybody's still complaining about how much everything costs and, you know, the impact that that has on us. And that's the danger of inflation.

• 45:08Speaker 03

  Once things go up, they rarely, rarely go down. What happens is they slow down, the increase slows down, but you're still paying a lot of money for it, even if inflation isn't happening. Because inflation happened, you still have to pay for it. So hang in there, people, and congratulations to those social security recipients. Tomorrow, we'll be back with another show. You're not going to want to miss it. Chad Hathaway, one of our favorite guests, will be coming on the show and joining us. We're going to talk about all things energy, gas, and oil. Of course, if you missed this show or any of our previous shows, you can go to our website, that's moneywiseguys.com. There you can find out more, where you can listen and download our podcast, whether it's on Spotify or Apple

• 45:53Speaker 03

  Music. And of course, as we leave, remember these three things. Be smart, be safe, and always be money wise.

• 46:02Speaker 02

  Securities offered through LPL Financial, member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through LPL Financial. LPL Financial and MoneyWise Wealth Management are independently owned and operated.